This has been an amazing week! I just got back from the National Whole Brain Teaching Conference in Pineville, Louisiana. The conference itself was soooo much fun and I learned soooo many new things. If I tried to include them all in this one blog, it would take way too long. Instead, I have decided to share them with you one at a time, beginning with my favorite - The New and Improved Five Step Lesson Plan.
For anyone who is not familiar with the original five step plan, you can find many in-depth posts on my blog that cover this topic. Below are the names of the original five steps:
1. Question
2. Answer
3. Expand
4. Test with QT
5. Critical Thinking
The changes to this plan have happened in steps three and five, with the biggest change being in step three. It is now all about ramping up the critical thinking skills in every lesson. Instead of waiting to focus on critical thinking in step five, it now takes place during step three. This occurs with the assistance of critical thinking sentence frames. After teaching the concept and providing the students with examples using the Mirror Words and Teach Okay format that we have always used, we then introduce students to critical thinking sentence frames. Below is an example of a critical thinking sentence frame that could be used when introducing students to the denominator of a fraction:
I see a group of ______________. The denominator is ______ because ____________________.
The frames above ask students to take what they have learned about fractions and create their own denominators with things/people in the classroom. The key to all critical thinking sentence frames is to include a "because clapper" in every set of sentence frames because it requires students to give a reason for what they believe.
Next year I will be using these frames with every lesson. My plan is to create a data base of critical thinking sentence frames for second grade that can be used year after year.
Since critical thinking was introduced in step three, step five is now called "Advanced Critical Thinking". This step almost always involves writing. In the spirit of funtricity, a WBT buzz word, I have my students write to Biffy Bluebird. She is a fun WBT cartoon character. I explain to my students that she knows nothing about __________ (whatever we are studying). Their job is to teach her what it is and explain to her how to do it. The kids really enjoy doing this. Occasionally, time permitting, I will choose a few pieces of writing at random and tell the kids that I am going to pretend that I am Biffy Bluebird and try to follow their instructions. This can be a lot of fun and very educational for the students as they watch, usually with much laughter, the results.
So there you have it. The changes to the five step lesson plan. I would just like to end with one very important reminder. Remember, all five steps can, but do not usually, occur on the same day. It usually takes me between three and five days to cover all five steps.
I hope that you find this information to be helpful as you begin to think ahead and plan for the upcoming school year.
Showing posts with label Five Step Lesson Plan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Five Step Lesson Plan. Show all posts
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Red/Green Writing Across the Curriculum
I have been using red/green writing since the first day of school. I love it! If you are not familiar with what it is, here is a brief overview: To get started all you need is a green and a red pen. Assign students a ten minute quick write. Make the topic open ended so that students can not claim to be finished. Announce the focus skill/s that you will be looking for. At the beginning of the year start with neatness. Then, every one or two weeks, add an additional skill that you will be looking for. Students are responsible for both the previous skills and the new one. As students are writing walk around with your pens. Place a green dot next to an example of something the student did right. For example, a word that is written very neatly, a capital at the beginning of a sentence, or an end mark used correctly. Place a red dot next to an error, but do not say anything. You want the student to correct the error on his/her own. I found that my students knew exactly what they had done wrong as soon as I made the mark, because they knew which focus skill/s I was checking for. My class hated getting red marks. As a result, they were much more careful when they wrote. They would get so excited when they had all green marks on their papers. If you want to know more about red/green writing you can go to the Whole Brain Teaching website and watch video 531.
My understanding and appreciation of red/green writing has definitely grown since I first started using it. At the beginning of the school year I was very good about making the topics that I assigned open-ended. However, I soon discovered that red/green writing was a perfect place for step five of the WBT five step lesson, critical thinking. (Please see separate posts for more detailed information on the five step lesson.) The critical thinking piece of the lesson generally involves writing, but it is hard to fit in during my regular reading and math blocks. So, on some days, I would provide students with an assigned topic that supported what we were learning in reading or math. Students still had plenty of time to write on topics of their choice, but now I was also asking them to write about what they had been learning.
I have also decided that red/green writing does not have to occur just at the end of the school day. I often use it during my regular writing block. Some days I will even allow my students to do their own red/green writing. They absolutely love this.
To demonstrate the power and versatility of red/green writing, I went through my students writing notebooks and selected samples of red/green writing that they have done during the school year. Underneath each photo I have written a brief description of the assignment.
In writing we were learning how to properly use the "but" Brainie. We were also working on adjectives. We had taken the Genius Ladder to the Extender level during writing time, but did not have time to write our Genius Paragraphs. So, I asked the students to write them during red/green writing. In our class we use a smilie face to show that a paper is correctly indented.
This piece of writing was from the early fall. We were beginning our unit on place value. I had created a math Power Pic through which the students learned that a place is a home for a number. After a few days of learning about places, I asked them this question during red/green writing time: What is a place? Students had also just learned what a "for example popper" was, so many had started using it in their writing.
This paragraph was written in the early spring. I had introduced students to even numbers with an even number Power Pic that I had created. After a week of studying what even numbers are and what their relationship is to doubles, I asked them the following question during red/green writing time: What are even numbers?
The Genius Ladder and red/green writing really do work well together. We did the ladder that this piece of writing stemmed from after a couple of weeks of addition with regrouping. the "Blah" sentence was: The student traded in a ten for ten ones. At the "Spicy" level my kids had to add an adjective to describe the noun student and at the extender level they were asked to use a "because clapper." They wrote their Genius Paragraphs during red/green writing time. I did ask them to use a "for example popper".
During writing we were learning how to write a triple whammy sentence with a because clapper. Students had orally practiced a number of sentences. I asked them to choose one and to write a five paragraph essay about it.
During phonics I taught students what we refer to in our classroom as the "Good-bye 'e' rule". It is our term for the "e" drop rule. At the end of the week, during red/green writing, I asked students what the "Good-bye 'e' rule was."
Sometimes I ask students to explain something to Biffy Bluebird, one of the WBT cartoon characters. We had been studying time, along with explanatory writing. I told the students that Biffy Bluebird knew nothing about how to tell time and it was their job to teach her how.
We were studying point of view. I had given the students a passage about a cat named Cupcake that had traveled 150 miles from a campground that he had run away from back to his home. The passage was written in third person. I asked the students to retell the story in first person, from the point of view of Cupcake.
My understanding and appreciation of red/green writing has definitely grown since I first started using it. At the beginning of the school year I was very good about making the topics that I assigned open-ended. However, I soon discovered that red/green writing was a perfect place for step five of the WBT five step lesson, critical thinking. (Please see separate posts for more detailed information on the five step lesson.) The critical thinking piece of the lesson generally involves writing, but it is hard to fit in during my regular reading and math blocks. So, on some days, I would provide students with an assigned topic that supported what we were learning in reading or math. Students still had plenty of time to write on topics of their choice, but now I was also asking them to write about what they had been learning.
I have also decided that red/green writing does not have to occur just at the end of the school day. I often use it during my regular writing block. Some days I will even allow my students to do their own red/green writing. They absolutely love this.
To demonstrate the power and versatility of red/green writing, I went through my students writing notebooks and selected samples of red/green writing that they have done during the school year. Underneath each photo I have written a brief description of the assignment.
In writing we were learning how to properly use the "but" Brainie. We were also working on adjectives. We had taken the Genius Ladder to the Extender level during writing time, but did not have time to write our Genius Paragraphs. So, I asked the students to write them during red/green writing. In our class we use a smilie face to show that a paper is correctly indented.
This piece of writing was from the early fall. We were beginning our unit on place value. I had created a math Power Pic through which the students learned that a place is a home for a number. After a few days of learning about places, I asked them this question during red/green writing time: What is a place? Students had also just learned what a "for example popper" was, so many had started using it in their writing.
This paragraph was written in the early spring. I had introduced students to even numbers with an even number Power Pic that I had created. After a week of studying what even numbers are and what their relationship is to doubles, I asked them the following question during red/green writing time: What are even numbers?
The Genius Ladder and red/green writing really do work well together. We did the ladder that this piece of writing stemmed from after a couple of weeks of addition with regrouping. the "Blah" sentence was: The student traded in a ten for ten ones. At the "Spicy" level my kids had to add an adjective to describe the noun student and at the extender level they were asked to use a "because clapper." They wrote their Genius Paragraphs during red/green writing time. I did ask them to use a "for example popper".
During writing we were learning how to write a triple whammy sentence with a because clapper. Students had orally practiced a number of sentences. I asked them to choose one and to write a five paragraph essay about it.
During phonics I taught students what we refer to in our classroom as the "Good-bye 'e' rule". It is our term for the "e" drop rule. At the end of the week, during red/green writing, I asked students what the "Good-bye 'e' rule was."
Sometimes I ask students to explain something to Biffy Bluebird, one of the WBT cartoon characters. We had been studying time, along with explanatory writing. I told the students that Biffy Bluebird knew nothing about how to tell time and it was their job to teach her how.
We were studying point of view. I had given the students a passage about a cat named Cupcake that had traveled 150 miles from a campground that he had run away from back to his home. The passage was written in third person. I asked the students to retell the story in first person, from the point of view of Cupcake.
This piece of writing was not done during red/green writing, but during our regular writing block. We have been working on writing informative text and have been doing a lot of comparing and contrasting in our writing. After reading a passage about Saturn and Earth, students were asked to write a paragraph telling how the two planets are different.
My purpose in writing this blog was to spark your imagination and help you to realize all of the possibilities that await both you and your students with red/green writing. Happy writing!
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Planning
It is really hard to believe that next week is spring break and that I am right at a couple of months short of completing my first full year as a Whole Brain Teacher. It has been an amazing year! I have learned so much as an WBT intern. I am so grateful to Nancy, my mentor, and to Coach B. for all of their help and encouragement. Over the course of this school year I have written about a variety of techniques, skills, and strategies that you would find in a WBT classroom. For this blog I have decided to answer a question that a lot of people have asked me this year: Do you find that planning is easier or harder when you are doing Whole Brain Teaching?
The answer to that question is simple. It is so much easier! O.k, to be honest, it was harder in the beginning, but that was because everything was so new to me and I had so much to learn. It took time to figure out how all of the pieces fit together. Now, I can honestly say that I spend a lot less time planning than I used to. I think that this is mainly due to the fact that the structures (The five step lesson, Power pics, The Genius Ladder, Teach/Okay, Mirrors, Red/Green Writing, Brainies, the use of Sentence Frames etc.) are already there. I just have to plug my lessons into them. I have found that with so many tools, I can easily weave instruction of a new concept into multiple parts of my day.
A perfect example of this is a unit that we just completed last week. Our class spent two weeks learning about Point of View and Dialogue. The first week I focused on point of view. The five step lesson format made planning very easy. I began by creating a Power Pic for point of view. Deciding on my question and answer was very important, because I knew that it was these two things that would guide my instruction. Below is my Power Pic:
Question: What is point of view?
Answer: Point of view is who is telling the story: first person, a character; second or third person, the author.
Gestures: Shrugging shoulders and then holding up one finger at a time for each of the three persons.
I knew that each day that week I would begin with my question and answer. When thinking about how to expand my lesson, my first step was to create a sentence frame. I use sentence frames on a regular basis. They provide a support and structure for my students, especially my ELL students, as they share during Teach Okays and Call-Outs. I chose the following frame: This story is being told from ________________. I know this because ________________. When planning any lesson I automatically include opportunities for students to prove their answers using a "because clapper".
This led to the question, "What do I expect my students to use for proof?" I quickly decided to use the WBT concept of "Power Words". I created an anchor chart with a tree map. On the tree map I placed my power words for first second and third person, along with my sentence frame. Below is a picture of it. This anchor chart stayed in the front of my room and became a reference for my students during the entire unit. Below is a picture of it.
Once this was done, the rest was very easy. The main way that I taught the concept was to read short paragraphs and using Teach/Okay ask the students to share from what point of view the text was being told and how they knew. I would remind them to use the sentence frames on the anchor chart. For proof they would say things like, "I know this because I heard the Power Words he, she, and their. For a couple of days I read the same scenarios, but from different points of view. Students would use these same sentence frames to discover the point of view that the books they were reading were being written from. At the end of independent reading time, students would first share with their partners using Teach/Okay and then with the class using Call-outs.
The last step of the five step lesson plan is critical thinking. This is usually done through writing. During Red/Green writing I gave my students a short story about a cat named Cupcake who ran away from a campground and walked 150 miles to get back home. The story was told from third person. I asked my students to rewrite it from first person, the point of view of Cupcake. We did some oral writing practice first, and then they began. The students did a really nice job. Below is one of their stories.
During this first week, something happened that I was hoping for. I shared a text with quotation marks. The character speaking used the word "I'. Some of my students immediately thought that this had to be first person. This led to the introduction of quotation marks. It was a perfect lead-in. In the past I had always struggled with the best way to teach quotes to second graders, but this year it was easy. I began with the Quotation Mark Brainie. My students were familiar with it, because I had previously pointed quotes out to them in text and they had used the Braine, but they really did not understand this Brainie. I decided that the Brainie would serve in a way as my Power Pic. This led to me deciding upon the following question and answer:
Question: What are quotation marks?
Answer: Quotation marks are talking marks. They go around the exact words that come out of a character's mouth.
Gesture: The gesture for the quotation mark Brainie.
Over the course of the week I gave students short stories with lots of quotation marks. We would do what I called the one minute drill. They had one minute to underline all of the quotes. (Of course, I first demonstrated how to do this.) They then had to read the passage with their partner using their gestures and Brainies, with an emphasis on making sure that the quotes were done properly. (This had also been modeled numerous times.) I then asked students to tell their partners (Teach/Okay) the point of view that the story was being told from (Students used the sentence frames on the anchor chart.) and then called on a student to share using a Call-Out. We then focused on the quotes. Using High Five Switch, the students had to take turns reading the quotes in order and telling who said it and how they knew. As they shared, they were expected to use their Brainies, especially quotation marks. I emphasized the comma and using a capital Brainie for the first word at the beginning of a sentence inside of the quotation marks. Of course I provide them with the following sentence frame: ______________ said __________________. I know this because ___________________. For their proof they usually said something like, "I know this because it said _______ said after the quotation marks."
As I did with point of view, I asked the students to find quotes in the books that they were reading and to share at the end of independent reading time, using the sentence frames that I had provided.
They were doing so well with all of this, that I decided to take quotation marks to a Genius Ladder and see how well they did at it. Below is the Genius Ladder that I used.
The students had a really good time with the simple sentence that I chose. At the Genius level students were asked to write a conversation with themselves and their mom. Most of my students were correctly using quotes, not forgetting the comma before or after the quote, and were capitalizing the first word inside the quotation marks. This can be attributed to all of the oral writing that they had been doing with quotation marks. I was really impressed with how well many of them did at changing paragraphs when they changed speakers. My students were already very familiar with paragraph form and the indent Brainie, so this wasn't that difficult for them. You may have noticed that at the extender level I introduced my students to the dependent clause. This is another Brainie that we had not previously talked about. Prior to this time, they were not ready for it. They still needed more work on it. It will definitely be the focus of our next few Genius Ladders, but they are beginning to catch on. It just amazes me the caliber of writing that you can get from second graders and what they are actually capable of understanding. Prior to finding a Whole Brain Teaching I would have never imagined that my students would be writing conversations so effortlessly with quotation marks and in paragraph form, nor would I have believed that they would be able to correctly write complex sentences with dependent clauses.
As a side note I wanted to point out that towards the end of this time we began an explanatory text unit in writing. Right away one of my students raised her hand and said, "We are going to be writing from second person." It was one of those moments when all I could do was say a quick prayer in my head, thinking God for Whole Brain Teaching.
I hope that you have found this look into my planning process helpful. Happy teaching!
The answer to that question is simple. It is so much easier! O.k, to be honest, it was harder in the beginning, but that was because everything was so new to me and I had so much to learn. It took time to figure out how all of the pieces fit together. Now, I can honestly say that I spend a lot less time planning than I used to. I think that this is mainly due to the fact that the structures (The five step lesson, Power pics, The Genius Ladder, Teach/Okay, Mirrors, Red/Green Writing, Brainies, the use of Sentence Frames etc.) are already there. I just have to plug my lessons into them. I have found that with so many tools, I can easily weave instruction of a new concept into multiple parts of my day.
A perfect example of this is a unit that we just completed last week. Our class spent two weeks learning about Point of View and Dialogue. The first week I focused on point of view. The five step lesson format made planning very easy. I began by creating a Power Pic for point of view. Deciding on my question and answer was very important, because I knew that it was these two things that would guide my instruction. Below is my Power Pic:
Question: What is point of view?
Answer: Point of view is who is telling the story: first person, a character; second or third person, the author.
Gestures: Shrugging shoulders and then holding up one finger at a time for each of the three persons.
I knew that each day that week I would begin with my question and answer. When thinking about how to expand my lesson, my first step was to create a sentence frame. I use sentence frames on a regular basis. They provide a support and structure for my students, especially my ELL students, as they share during Teach Okays and Call-Outs. I chose the following frame: This story is being told from ________________. I know this because ________________. When planning any lesson I automatically include opportunities for students to prove their answers using a "because clapper".
This led to the question, "What do I expect my students to use for proof?" I quickly decided to use the WBT concept of "Power Words". I created an anchor chart with a tree map. On the tree map I placed my power words for first second and third person, along with my sentence frame. Below is a picture of it. This anchor chart stayed in the front of my room and became a reference for my students during the entire unit. Below is a picture of it.
The last step of the five step lesson plan is critical thinking. This is usually done through writing. During Red/Green writing I gave my students a short story about a cat named Cupcake who ran away from a campground and walked 150 miles to get back home. The story was told from third person. I asked my students to rewrite it from first person, the point of view of Cupcake. We did some oral writing practice first, and then they began. The students did a really nice job. Below is one of their stories.
During this first week, something happened that I was hoping for. I shared a text with quotation marks. The character speaking used the word "I'. Some of my students immediately thought that this had to be first person. This led to the introduction of quotation marks. It was a perfect lead-in. In the past I had always struggled with the best way to teach quotes to second graders, but this year it was easy. I began with the Quotation Mark Brainie. My students were familiar with it, because I had previously pointed quotes out to them in text and they had used the Braine, but they really did not understand this Brainie. I decided that the Brainie would serve in a way as my Power Pic. This led to me deciding upon the following question and answer:
Question: What are quotation marks?
Answer: Quotation marks are talking marks. They go around the exact words that come out of a character's mouth.
Gesture: The gesture for the quotation mark Brainie.
Over the course of the week I gave students short stories with lots of quotation marks. We would do what I called the one minute drill. They had one minute to underline all of the quotes. (Of course, I first demonstrated how to do this.) They then had to read the passage with their partner using their gestures and Brainies, with an emphasis on making sure that the quotes were done properly. (This had also been modeled numerous times.) I then asked students to tell their partners (Teach/Okay) the point of view that the story was being told from (Students used the sentence frames on the anchor chart.) and then called on a student to share using a Call-Out. We then focused on the quotes. Using High Five Switch, the students had to take turns reading the quotes in order and telling who said it and how they knew. As they shared, they were expected to use their Brainies, especially quotation marks. I emphasized the comma and using a capital Brainie for the first word at the beginning of a sentence inside of the quotation marks. Of course I provide them with the following sentence frame: ______________ said __________________. I know this because ___________________. For their proof they usually said something like, "I know this because it said _______ said after the quotation marks."
As I did with point of view, I asked the students to find quotes in the books that they were reading and to share at the end of independent reading time, using the sentence frames that I had provided.
They were doing so well with all of this, that I decided to take quotation marks to a Genius Ladder and see how well they did at it. Below is the Genius Ladder that I used.
The students had a really good time with the simple sentence that I chose. At the Genius level students were asked to write a conversation with themselves and their mom. Most of my students were correctly using quotes, not forgetting the comma before or after the quote, and were capitalizing the first word inside the quotation marks. This can be attributed to all of the oral writing that they had been doing with quotation marks. I was really impressed with how well many of them did at changing paragraphs when they changed speakers. My students were already very familiar with paragraph form and the indent Brainie, so this wasn't that difficult for them. You may have noticed that at the extender level I introduced my students to the dependent clause. This is another Brainie that we had not previously talked about. Prior to this time, they were not ready for it. They still needed more work on it. It will definitely be the focus of our next few Genius Ladders, but they are beginning to catch on. It just amazes me the caliber of writing that you can get from second graders and what they are actually capable of understanding. Prior to finding a Whole Brain Teaching I would have never imagined that my students would be writing conversations so effortlessly with quotation marks and in paragraph form, nor would I have believed that they would be able to correctly write complex sentences with dependent clauses.
As a side note I wanted to point out that towards the end of this time we began an explanatory text unit in writing. Right away one of my students raised her hand and said, "We are going to be writing from second person." It was one of those moments when all I could do was say a quick prayer in my head, thinking God for Whole Brain Teaching.
I hope that you have found this look into my planning process helpful. Happy teaching!
Thursday, February 26, 2015
The Perfect Fit Methodology
When someone asks me what Whole Brain Teaching is, one of the first things that I tell them is that Whole Brain Teaching is not a program, it is instead a methodology. This is a very important distinction. We have enough programs in education. Programs demand a chunk of our precious teaching time, they tell us what to do, and they often tell us exactly how to do it by scripting out everything that we are to say. In a nutshell, it is prescribed content. A methodology, however, is not content. It is the vehicle we use to deliver the content. It is the collection of strategies and techniques we use to ensure that our students are learning the content. A methodology is not something else that we have to do. It is a better way of doing what we already have to do. This, in a nutshell, is Whole Brain Teaching: a better way of doing what we already have to do.
One of the reasons that I fell in love with Whole Brain Teaching is because it wasn't one more thing I had to do. The strategies and techniques were so easy to implement and use that everything I was already doing became so much easier and so much more successful. I could give you numerous examples of this, but in this post I would like to share with you the difference that Whole Brain Teaching made in my favorite contraction lesson. When I was student teaching one of the cooperating teachers at the school I was at shared with me a lesson that she used to teach contractions to her students. I fell in love with it and have been using it ever since. It is called "Magic Door Contractions". Below is a picture of a Magic Door".
In the past I always taught this lesson by telling students that I was going to do a magic trick for them. I would then hold up the door with both flaps shut. Making a big production out of it, I would tell my students that I was going to take two plain ordinary words, did and not, and by saying the magic words, "AbraCadabra Contraction Action," I would turn these two plain ordinary words into a contraction. I would then open the doors with a flair and reveal the contraction did not. I then would explain that magicians all have a secret to their tricks that only the magician knows. I would ask my students if they wanted to become magicians and be able to do the magic door trick - which of course they all did. What followed was my ten minute lecture on how to form a contraction. Of course, I was very dramatic as I explained how I would say the contraction that the two words made; listen for the missing letters; and then squeeze the two words together, replacing the missing letters with an apostrophe. What I did not realize was that I was talking far too long, and that no matter how dramatic I was being, most of my students had tuned me out after a couple of minutes. I would always end the lesson by giving the students blank doors that they had to fill in with the two words and contraction of their choice. They would try the trick one time with a partner, and then they would take their doors home to do the trick with their families. I had always felt like this was a good way to introduce students to what contractions are. It was fun and hands-on. Students got a good introduction to contractions, which I built upon over a two week period in which I gave students many days of practicing how to make contractions.
This year I still wanted to use my Magic Doors, but I wanted to present them to my students using the Whole Brain Teaching vehicle of choice: The Five Step Lesson Plan. In this post I will not be defining common WBT terms used during a five step lesson such as "Mirror" and "Teach Okay". If you are not familiar with the specifics of a five step lesson, please see my separate posts on this topic which will define these terms and take you more in-depth. For the purposes of this post, I simply want to demonstrate how I was able to take a lesson that I have already done, and teach it the WBT way. Below is what it looked like the WBT way:
* Please note that this lesson took place over a three day period.
Question: (MW) What is a contraction? (T/O)
Answer: (MW) A contraction is a word with missing letters marked by an apostrophe, zeep. (Zeep is the sound effect that accompanies the apostrophe, which is one of the Brainies.) (T/O)
Explain: I did my magic trick, and then I asked the students to explain the trick to their partners (T/O)
I then reminded my students that the apostrophe took the place of the missing letters. So I asked them which letters were missing in the contraction didn't. They had to tell there partners which letters were missing and how they knew, using a because clapper. (T/0 followed by Call-Outs)
(MW) Contractions come in families. (T/0) I then displayed a poster of contraction families and asked my students to determine how many contraction families there are. (T/O followed by holding up fingers to show the answer) Below is a picture of the poster I displayed:
I then went under my sign for Big Point. Students who chose to become model mirrors stood. (MW) Every family has the same missing letters. (T/O) I then made a big deal out of the fact that if you can learn which letters are missing in each family, then you can make any contraction. I also reminded them that they already knew the missing letter in the "not" family, so that meant they only had eight more to learn.
We then looked at one family at a time and using T/O followed by call-outs, students had to tell me the missing letters in each family. They also had to prove which letters were missing using a because clapper. Before we moved on to a new family, I would give students a list of the words that made up the contractions in that family and they had to tell their partner the contraction for those two words in a complete sentence and write the contraction on their air whiteboard. (One of the Brain Toys). We used High Five Switch for this. Below are the sentence frames that the students used when sharing:
___________ is the contraction for __________ and ______________. You write the contraction _____________ (Spell it on your air whiteboards.)
After all of this, I told them that it was now their turn to do the magic trick. We went through the same process we did at the beginning of the lesson with me doing a trick and the students explaining the trick to their partners using T/O. I then passed out doors already made. (This was a switch from what I had done in the past when the students made the doors, but I felt that this way they would have the opportunity to do more tricks.) Using Uh/Oh Switch students did the trick for their partner. Students then traded doors and did the trick with their new door, once again using Uh/Oh Switch. We continued doing this until students had had the opportunity to perform the trick several times. When done I allowed all of the students to take one door home so that they could perform this trick with their parents.
Test: I used QT and made statements such as: In the not family, the missing letter is the "o".
Critical Thinking: Students had to write a paragraph that answered the question, "What is a contraction?" They were encouraged to use the "For Example Popper". (This is another one of the Brain Toys.)
*I was also giving out Super Improver Stars all week to students who had begun to use contractions in their writing.
Following this lesson, students had an additional one day of practice making and writing contractions before they were tested.
How did the WBT way compare to what I used to do? In past years I spent two weeks on contractions and spent a lot of time working with students in small groups to make sure they understood what a contraction was and how to write one. It was a lot of work. When test day came I would get a few hundreds from my high students, and the rest of my class would mostly get B's. Generally I would get a few C's, as well as a couple of D's or F's, usually from my special education students. I would then go back and meet with the students in small groups or individually to discuss what they had trouble with on the test. It was an exhausting process.
This year I spent one week on contractions. I spent no time working with students in small groups prior to the test. Sixteen out of seventeen students got an "A", including my two lowest. One student got an "F". I only had one student to go over the test with, and the entire week of teaching contractions was fun and easy!
If you have not yet tried Whole Brain Teaching, my question to you is "What are you waiting for?" It is not more work. It is a methodology that is fun, easy, and a perfect fit for anything that you are already doing.
One of the reasons that I fell in love with Whole Brain Teaching is because it wasn't one more thing I had to do. The strategies and techniques were so easy to implement and use that everything I was already doing became so much easier and so much more successful. I could give you numerous examples of this, but in this post I would like to share with you the difference that Whole Brain Teaching made in my favorite contraction lesson. When I was student teaching one of the cooperating teachers at the school I was at shared with me a lesson that she used to teach contractions to her students. I fell in love with it and have been using it ever since. It is called "Magic Door Contractions". Below is a picture of a Magic Door".
In the past I always taught this lesson by telling students that I was going to do a magic trick for them. I would then hold up the door with both flaps shut. Making a big production out of it, I would tell my students that I was going to take two plain ordinary words, did and not, and by saying the magic words, "AbraCadabra Contraction Action," I would turn these two plain ordinary words into a contraction. I would then open the doors with a flair and reveal the contraction did not. I then would explain that magicians all have a secret to their tricks that only the magician knows. I would ask my students if they wanted to become magicians and be able to do the magic door trick - which of course they all did. What followed was my ten minute lecture on how to form a contraction. Of course, I was very dramatic as I explained how I would say the contraction that the two words made; listen for the missing letters; and then squeeze the two words together, replacing the missing letters with an apostrophe. What I did not realize was that I was talking far too long, and that no matter how dramatic I was being, most of my students had tuned me out after a couple of minutes. I would always end the lesson by giving the students blank doors that they had to fill in with the two words and contraction of their choice. They would try the trick one time with a partner, and then they would take their doors home to do the trick with their families. I had always felt like this was a good way to introduce students to what contractions are. It was fun and hands-on. Students got a good introduction to contractions, which I built upon over a two week period in which I gave students many days of practicing how to make contractions.
This year I still wanted to use my Magic Doors, but I wanted to present them to my students using the Whole Brain Teaching vehicle of choice: The Five Step Lesson Plan. In this post I will not be defining common WBT terms used during a five step lesson such as "Mirror" and "Teach Okay". If you are not familiar with the specifics of a five step lesson, please see my separate posts on this topic which will define these terms and take you more in-depth. For the purposes of this post, I simply want to demonstrate how I was able to take a lesson that I have already done, and teach it the WBT way. Below is what it looked like the WBT way:
* Please note that this lesson took place over a three day period.
Question: (MW) What is a contraction? (T/O)
Answer: (MW) A contraction is a word with missing letters marked by an apostrophe, zeep. (Zeep is the sound effect that accompanies the apostrophe, which is one of the Brainies.) (T/O)
Explain: I did my magic trick, and then I asked the students to explain the trick to their partners (T/O)
I then reminded my students that the apostrophe took the place of the missing letters. So I asked them which letters were missing in the contraction didn't. They had to tell there partners which letters were missing and how they knew, using a because clapper. (T/0 followed by Call-Outs)
(MW) Contractions come in families. (T/0) I then displayed a poster of contraction families and asked my students to determine how many contraction families there are. (T/O followed by holding up fingers to show the answer) Below is a picture of the poster I displayed:
I then went under my sign for Big Point. Students who chose to become model mirrors stood. (MW) Every family has the same missing letters. (T/O) I then made a big deal out of the fact that if you can learn which letters are missing in each family, then you can make any contraction. I also reminded them that they already knew the missing letter in the "not" family, so that meant they only had eight more to learn.
We then looked at one family at a time and using T/O followed by call-outs, students had to tell me the missing letters in each family. They also had to prove which letters were missing using a because clapper. Before we moved on to a new family, I would give students a list of the words that made up the contractions in that family and they had to tell their partner the contraction for those two words in a complete sentence and write the contraction on their air whiteboard. (One of the Brain Toys). We used High Five Switch for this. Below are the sentence frames that the students used when sharing:
___________ is the contraction for __________ and ______________. You write the contraction _____________ (Spell it on your air whiteboards.)
After all of this, I told them that it was now their turn to do the magic trick. We went through the same process we did at the beginning of the lesson with me doing a trick and the students explaining the trick to their partners using T/O. I then passed out doors already made. (This was a switch from what I had done in the past when the students made the doors, but I felt that this way they would have the opportunity to do more tricks.) Using Uh/Oh Switch students did the trick for their partner. Students then traded doors and did the trick with their new door, once again using Uh/Oh Switch. We continued doing this until students had had the opportunity to perform the trick several times. When done I allowed all of the students to take one door home so that they could perform this trick with their parents.
Test: I used QT and made statements such as: In the not family, the missing letter is the "o".
Critical Thinking: Students had to write a paragraph that answered the question, "What is a contraction?" They were encouraged to use the "For Example Popper". (This is another one of the Brain Toys.)
*I was also giving out Super Improver Stars all week to students who had begun to use contractions in their writing.
Following this lesson, students had an additional one day of practice making and writing contractions before they were tested.
How did the WBT way compare to what I used to do? In past years I spent two weeks on contractions and spent a lot of time working with students in small groups to make sure they understood what a contraction was and how to write one. It was a lot of work. When test day came I would get a few hundreds from my high students, and the rest of my class would mostly get B's. Generally I would get a few C's, as well as a couple of D's or F's, usually from my special education students. I would then go back and meet with the students in small groups or individually to discuss what they had trouble with on the test. It was an exhausting process.
This year I spent one week on contractions. I spent no time working with students in small groups prior to the test. Sixteen out of seventeen students got an "A", including my two lowest. One student got an "F". I only had one student to go over the test with, and the entire week of teaching contractions was fun and easy!
If you have not yet tried Whole Brain Teaching, my question to you is "What are you waiting for?" It is not more work. It is a methodology that is fun, easy, and a perfect fit for anything that you are already doing.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Coach B.'s Visit to Las Vegas
Coach B.'s visit to Las Vegas was awesome! I can't tell you how great it was to meet him in person and watch him in action. This post is dedicated to all of the "fine tuning", ah ha moments, and new ideas that I walked away with at the end of Coach's visit. Numbers one and two were my biggest ah ha moments. After that, they are listed in no particular order.
1. My biggest ah ha moment was in regards to Mirror Words. The first thing that I noticed was that in both my classroom and during both training days, Coach B. used Mirror Words even when he did not go right into a Teach Okay. This was huge for me, because for some reason, I had always connected Mirror Words with the Teach Okay. As a result, I only used it right before I did a Teach Okay. To explain why I thought this this way, I need to go back to the beginning. If you have been following my blog for awhile, you know that I was a self-taught Wibbiteer (slang for a Whole Brain teacher). I watched videos and everything that I could find on line about WBT. Most everything I learned about I felt like I understood pretty well, but Mirrors were confusing to me from the beginning. When I first started, I thought that the students had to repeat exactly what you said, along with your gestures. (I guess I thought of a mirror and it brought to my mind the idea of mimicking the other person.) Thankfully, through the intern program, I quickly learned that my understanding of Mirror Words was incorrect. The goal is for students to paraphrase what you are teaching them. This was very eye-opening to me, because since students didn't need to copy my exact words, I could give them more than a simple sentence to teach. I could actually say things like, "Explain to your partner ____________." It changed my lessons. They became so much easier to chunk. My teaching changed completely. Now I feel like I have the final piece of the puzzle. I feel like a free woman. I can use Mirror Words anytime I want to, not just before a Teach Okay! Thinking about it now, I realize that I probably should have known that. After all, I never felt like Silent Mirrors or Magic Mirrors were tied to my Teach Okay. However, the past is the past, and I am just happy that thanks to the modeling of Coach B., the light bulb has finally come all the way on.
2. I really enjoyed watching Coach B.as he taught step two of the five step lesson plan: the question. My biggest take away was that during Mirror Words we can do more than just simply state the question. We can say things like, "I have a question. A really big question. It's a ginormous question. Here is our question for today." We would then go on to state the question two different ways. It just made step two a lot more fun. Then, right before calling for a Teach Okay, we can either say "Mirrors Off" and ask students to share the question with their partner, or simply go right into the Teach Okay. I loved it, because it really brings that element of funtricity to what had not previously been a very exciting part of the lesson.
3. Coach B. talked about something that I think is super important. It will not change what I am doing, but it gave me more insight into why I am doing it, which will help me better explain WBT to others. He said that when we teach our students, we are really teaching them a foreign language. Words like numerator, denominator, hexagon, preposition etc. they have never heard before. When learning a foreign language, we can't just hear the language. The way that we learn it is through speaking it. After modeling the first two steps of a fraction lesson, Coach B. stopped and talked about how many times we had used the words numerator and denominator in the past few minutes. Repetition is key to learning a foreign language, and it is the repetition created by the first two steps of the five step plan that makes those two steps so powerful. That was a great take away for me.
4. My next insight was in regards to think time. He said that when we give kids think time, we don't know what they are thinking about. I had not thought of this before, but it made sense. However, I was not sure that this would work with my ELL students, who I feel often need a few moments to think about what they want to say, particularly right before oral writing. So I talked to Coach B. about this. I shared with him what I currently do: Right before asking students to think of a triple whammy sentence I have them put their heads down and hold up one finger for each whammy they think of. When three fingers are up, I know they have their triple whammy sentences. He thought that this was interesting and suggested that I try it both ways and see what the differences are in the students' responses. That is exactly what I am going to do. I am anxious to find out if my students can come up with triple whammy sentences without the think time. If they can, I am considering saying good-bye to my think time.
5. Coach B. talked about one of the most powerful things that you can teach your students: No two sentences start with the same word. If you are familiar with the Writing Game, this is actually found on the paper clip editing checklist. I have it typed out and ready to go on my wall, but I had not yet taught it to my students. I was going to, I just hadn't given much thought yet to when. I am happy to report that the wait is now over. Last Monday I began to teach my students this very important rule, and it is now hanging on my red/green writing wall.
6. Coach used a half finger Wooh with my students. It was awesome! He would say, "Give me an eleven and a half finger Wooh". For the half finger students bent one finger and very quickly and in a high voice said, "Woop". It was awesome! I use them all the time now. My kids say that Coach B. has really got me hooked on the half finger Woohs. I told them that they were right. I love them!
7. I learned a fun option for three-peats. As soon as students have followed a direction, such as blue folders, they raise both hands in the air and either cheer out loud or silently until you signal for them to stop. Another idea would be for them to snap their fingers. This keeps the students busy if you need a moment to help a student who can't find what you have asked for. I love it! I implemented it this week with my class - I chose the silent cheer - and I am happy to report that it is a success.
8. Coach also officially introduced as a strategy something that he has always done: Give me a _________. For example, "Give me an oooh!" or "Give me an aaah!" We practiced inserting these statements into our lessons, and it just added a little more funtricity to them.
9. It was a lot of fun when Coach B. came and played Mind Soccer with my students. He modeled a component of Mind Soccer that I remembered seeing on videos, but until he modeled it, I had forgotten all about it. When a team got a question right he would point to them and say cheer, and then he would quickly point to the other team and say moan. It made the game a lot more fun. I will definitely be doing that from now on.
10. My last big take away was to amp up the funtricity. I feel like we have a lot already, but watching Coach B., and the way that he was able to make everything fun, was contagious. The limbic system in the brain is so important to learning. If we can't engage our students emotions, they will not retain the information, which is truly what learning is all about.
I am so happy that I had the opportunity last weekend to work with Coach B. There are not enough positive adjectives to describe him. I, for one, am just very thankful for Coach B.'s passion for helping others. It is truly one of the things that make him so special. Happy Whole Brain Teaching!
1. My biggest ah ha moment was in regards to Mirror Words. The first thing that I noticed was that in both my classroom and during both training days, Coach B. used Mirror Words even when he did not go right into a Teach Okay. This was huge for me, because for some reason, I had always connected Mirror Words with the Teach Okay. As a result, I only used it right before I did a Teach Okay. To explain why I thought this this way, I need to go back to the beginning. If you have been following my blog for awhile, you know that I was a self-taught Wibbiteer (slang for a Whole Brain teacher). I watched videos and everything that I could find on line about WBT. Most everything I learned about I felt like I understood pretty well, but Mirrors were confusing to me from the beginning. When I first started, I thought that the students had to repeat exactly what you said, along with your gestures. (I guess I thought of a mirror and it brought to my mind the idea of mimicking the other person.) Thankfully, through the intern program, I quickly learned that my understanding of Mirror Words was incorrect. The goal is for students to paraphrase what you are teaching them. This was very eye-opening to me, because since students didn't need to copy my exact words, I could give them more than a simple sentence to teach. I could actually say things like, "Explain to your partner ____________." It changed my lessons. They became so much easier to chunk. My teaching changed completely. Now I feel like I have the final piece of the puzzle. I feel like a free woman. I can use Mirror Words anytime I want to, not just before a Teach Okay! Thinking about it now, I realize that I probably should have known that. After all, I never felt like Silent Mirrors or Magic Mirrors were tied to my Teach Okay. However, the past is the past, and I am just happy that thanks to the modeling of Coach B., the light bulb has finally come all the way on.
2. I really enjoyed watching Coach B.as he taught step two of the five step lesson plan: the question. My biggest take away was that during Mirror Words we can do more than just simply state the question. We can say things like, "I have a question. A really big question. It's a ginormous question. Here is our question for today." We would then go on to state the question two different ways. It just made step two a lot more fun. Then, right before calling for a Teach Okay, we can either say "Mirrors Off" and ask students to share the question with their partner, or simply go right into the Teach Okay. I loved it, because it really brings that element of funtricity to what had not previously been a very exciting part of the lesson.
3. Coach B. talked about something that I think is super important. It will not change what I am doing, but it gave me more insight into why I am doing it, which will help me better explain WBT to others. He said that when we teach our students, we are really teaching them a foreign language. Words like numerator, denominator, hexagon, preposition etc. they have never heard before. When learning a foreign language, we can't just hear the language. The way that we learn it is through speaking it. After modeling the first two steps of a fraction lesson, Coach B. stopped and talked about how many times we had used the words numerator and denominator in the past few minutes. Repetition is key to learning a foreign language, and it is the repetition created by the first two steps of the five step plan that makes those two steps so powerful. That was a great take away for me.
4. My next insight was in regards to think time. He said that when we give kids think time, we don't know what they are thinking about. I had not thought of this before, but it made sense. However, I was not sure that this would work with my ELL students, who I feel often need a few moments to think about what they want to say, particularly right before oral writing. So I talked to Coach B. about this. I shared with him what I currently do: Right before asking students to think of a triple whammy sentence I have them put their heads down and hold up one finger for each whammy they think of. When three fingers are up, I know they have their triple whammy sentences. He thought that this was interesting and suggested that I try it both ways and see what the differences are in the students' responses. That is exactly what I am going to do. I am anxious to find out if my students can come up with triple whammy sentences without the think time. If they can, I am considering saying good-bye to my think time.
5. Coach B. talked about one of the most powerful things that you can teach your students: No two sentences start with the same word. If you are familiar with the Writing Game, this is actually found on the paper clip editing checklist. I have it typed out and ready to go on my wall, but I had not yet taught it to my students. I was going to, I just hadn't given much thought yet to when. I am happy to report that the wait is now over. Last Monday I began to teach my students this very important rule, and it is now hanging on my red/green writing wall.
6. Coach used a half finger Wooh with my students. It was awesome! He would say, "Give me an eleven and a half finger Wooh". For the half finger students bent one finger and very quickly and in a high voice said, "Woop". It was awesome! I use them all the time now. My kids say that Coach B. has really got me hooked on the half finger Woohs. I told them that they were right. I love them!
7. I learned a fun option for three-peats. As soon as students have followed a direction, such as blue folders, they raise both hands in the air and either cheer out loud or silently until you signal for them to stop. Another idea would be for them to snap their fingers. This keeps the students busy if you need a moment to help a student who can't find what you have asked for. I love it! I implemented it this week with my class - I chose the silent cheer - and I am happy to report that it is a success.
8. Coach also officially introduced as a strategy something that he has always done: Give me a _________. For example, "Give me an oooh!" or "Give me an aaah!" We practiced inserting these statements into our lessons, and it just added a little more funtricity to them.
9. It was a lot of fun when Coach B. came and played Mind Soccer with my students. He modeled a component of Mind Soccer that I remembered seeing on videos, but until he modeled it, I had forgotten all about it. When a team got a question right he would point to them and say cheer, and then he would quickly point to the other team and say moan. It made the game a lot more fun. I will definitely be doing that from now on.
10. My last big take away was to amp up the funtricity. I feel like we have a lot already, but watching Coach B., and the way that he was able to make everything fun, was contagious. The limbic system in the brain is so important to learning. If we can't engage our students emotions, they will not retain the information, which is truly what learning is all about.
I am so happy that I had the opportunity last weekend to work with Coach B. There are not enough positive adjectives to describe him. I, for one, am just very thankful for Coach B.'s passion for helping others. It is truly one of the things that make him so special. Happy Whole Brain Teaching!
Friday, January 9, 2015
The Power of Whole Brain Teaching
Not too long ago one of my students came in and handed me a piece of paper with writing on it that she had done at home. This is not unusual. Quite often students will bring me short notes they have written or pictures that they have drawn for me. It is really sweet. This one, however, was quite different. It demonstrates the power of Whole Brain Teaching in a way that nothing else can. Below is a picture of the paper that she gave me.
It was like receiving a recap of what we had recently been studying. This came from one of my average students. The first thing I noticed was that she indented. We have been using the indent Brainie for awhile, but it still amazes me how easy it is to get students to indent independently. After all, it is only the first semester of second grade. The Brainies are amazing!
Next, I noticed the use of the "If-then" Brainie. We were studying character traits at the time and using the "If-then" Brainie to state evidence supporting a character trait. I know that the writing is a little hard to read, so let me share with you, unedited, the five sentences that she wrote:
"If a dinosaurs eat a person, then he is mad. If Carmen was crying, then she is sad. If Carmen erned a super improver star, then she is happy. If Jenk did not want to go with Carmens mom, then she is shy. If a princess made a person feel better, then she is helpful."
Of course, her sentence about earning a Super Improver Star is my favorite! All three of those sentences were punctuated correctly, which demonstrates the power of the Brainies. Also, I don't know if you can see it, but if you look carefully at the two Carmens, you will notice that she had orignally written lower case c's, but changed them to capitals. I attribute this to all of the revision practice that the students get with red/green writing. (For more information on red/green writing, please see my post on this subject.)
From there she went on to write three different lists. The first is a list of long vowel words. The second is a list of long "o" words", and the third is a list of long "e" words. All three sentences were written correctly with commas and the word "and" before the last item in the list. This can be attributed to the "Triple Whammy sentence". A triple whammy sentence is a list with three parts. An example would be: My three favorite subjects in school are reading, math, and science. Once students have learned how to write a triple whammy sentence, it becomes very easy for them to correctly create longer lists.
She ended with examples of the first two steps of Whole Brain Teaching's five step lesson plan. When introducing a concept using WBT, the first step is to ask the students a question, which they ask to their partner. The second step is to answer the question. The answer is the definition of the concept. You may notice that her definition of a noun is incorrect on her paper. However, when she handed the paper to me she informed me that she had got mixed up there (pointing to that sentence) and that she meant to say an adjective describes a noun. She went on to explain that she didn't have time to fix it. Her second example came from math. We have been studying place value. I had created my own power pic to go with a place and defined it as "A place is a home for a number." (For my information on Power Pics, please see my post entitled "The Power of the Pics".) It had been a number of weeks since I introduced this Power Pic to my students, but because we are constantly reviewing the Power Pics, the students are retaining the concepts. I would also like to point out that both of her questions ended with question marks.
I chose to write this blog, because I know that there are some people who will be reading it that have not yet tried Whole Brain Teaching, but are curious about it. Maybe you are one of them. If you are like I was, you might be wondering, "Can anything be that good? Do you really get the results that are claimed?" My answers are emphatically "Yes and yes!" This little girls' paper clearly demonstrates the power of Whole Brain Teaching. I will never teach any other way! I have spent 25 years in education and have never seen anything like it. If I had to boil why Whole Brain Teaching works so well down into one sentence I would say the following: It works so well, because learning is fun and the students are always engaged. The same day that this student gave me this paper, she turned to me as we were leaving for the day and said, "Miss Ray, I really love school!" My reply was, "I really love school too!" Whole Brain teaching makes coming to school everyday fun for both the teacher and the student. So what are you waiting for. Take the plunge and you won't be sorry. Within a month you will find yourself saying, "This is the best educational decision that I have ever made."
It was like receiving a recap of what we had recently been studying. This came from one of my average students. The first thing I noticed was that she indented. We have been using the indent Brainie for awhile, but it still amazes me how easy it is to get students to indent independently. After all, it is only the first semester of second grade. The Brainies are amazing!
Next, I noticed the use of the "If-then" Brainie. We were studying character traits at the time and using the "If-then" Brainie to state evidence supporting a character trait. I know that the writing is a little hard to read, so let me share with you, unedited, the five sentences that she wrote:
"If a dinosaurs eat a person, then he is mad. If Carmen was crying, then she is sad. If Carmen erned a super improver star, then she is happy. If Jenk did not want to go with Carmens mom, then she is shy. If a princess made a person feel better, then she is helpful."
Of course, her sentence about earning a Super Improver Star is my favorite! All three of those sentences were punctuated correctly, which demonstrates the power of the Brainies. Also, I don't know if you can see it, but if you look carefully at the two Carmens, you will notice that she had orignally written lower case c's, but changed them to capitals. I attribute this to all of the revision practice that the students get with red/green writing. (For more information on red/green writing, please see my post on this subject.)
From there she went on to write three different lists. The first is a list of long vowel words. The second is a list of long "o" words", and the third is a list of long "e" words. All three sentences were written correctly with commas and the word "and" before the last item in the list. This can be attributed to the "Triple Whammy sentence". A triple whammy sentence is a list with three parts. An example would be: My three favorite subjects in school are reading, math, and science. Once students have learned how to write a triple whammy sentence, it becomes very easy for them to correctly create longer lists.
She ended with examples of the first two steps of Whole Brain Teaching's five step lesson plan. When introducing a concept using WBT, the first step is to ask the students a question, which they ask to their partner. The second step is to answer the question. The answer is the definition of the concept. You may notice that her definition of a noun is incorrect on her paper. However, when she handed the paper to me she informed me that she had got mixed up there (pointing to that sentence) and that she meant to say an adjective describes a noun. She went on to explain that she didn't have time to fix it. Her second example came from math. We have been studying place value. I had created my own power pic to go with a place and defined it as "A place is a home for a number." (For my information on Power Pics, please see my post entitled "The Power of the Pics".) It had been a number of weeks since I introduced this Power Pic to my students, but because we are constantly reviewing the Power Pics, the students are retaining the concepts. I would also like to point out that both of her questions ended with question marks.
I chose to write this blog, because I know that there are some people who will be reading it that have not yet tried Whole Brain Teaching, but are curious about it. Maybe you are one of them. If you are like I was, you might be wondering, "Can anything be that good? Do you really get the results that are claimed?" My answers are emphatically "Yes and yes!" This little girls' paper clearly demonstrates the power of Whole Brain Teaching. I will never teach any other way! I have spent 25 years in education and have never seen anything like it. If I had to boil why Whole Brain Teaching works so well down into one sentence I would say the following: It works so well, because learning is fun and the students are always engaged. The same day that this student gave me this paper, she turned to me as we were leaving for the day and said, "Miss Ray, I really love school!" My reply was, "I really love school too!" Whole Brain teaching makes coming to school everyday fun for both the teacher and the student. So what are you waiting for. Take the plunge and you won't be sorry. Within a month you will find yourself saying, "This is the best educational decision that I have ever made."
Thursday, December 4, 2014
A Closer Look at a Writing Lesson
One of the things that I love the best about Whole Brain Teaching is the way that writing is taught. Over the years I have seen and have used so many writing programs and methodologies in which students are given a lot of time to practice writing, but what they are practicing is the wrong way to write. This revelation did not occur to me until I started teaching writing the Whole Brain way. In Whole Brain Teaching writing is broken down into its smallest components and taught to the students in such a way that what they are practicing is the correct way to write. I would like to demonstrate this by sharing with you a lesson that I recently taught on compound sentences and the joining word "but". I used the WBT 5 step lesson plan and taught this lesson over a period of three days.
If you are not familiar with this format, please see my blog post entitled, "The Five Step Lesson Plan." Before sharing with you my lesson, there is one thing that I would like to point out. During the explanation portion of the lesson it is so important that you chunk the information that you are sharing with your students into very small parts. The longest you should be talking at any one time before asking the students to share with their partners (Teach Okay) is around 30 seconds. The general rule is that you share information with the students using "Mirror Words" (students repeat your words and copy your gestures) and immediately follow this with "Teach Okay". (You say, "Teach." The students respond "Okay." They then turn quickly to their partners and share what you have just taught them.) This is not an easy thing to do. As teachers we are used to talking. Getting into the habit of chunking your lessons takes time and practice. This is something that I have recently really been working on. I found that the best way to make sure you are doing this is to decide in advance at what places in your lesson you are going to have your students do "Teach Okays". Honestly, when I started teaching this way there were times where I thought that this was impossible. What I discovered, however, is that when I forced myself to plan a lesson around the idea that I was going to chunk it, my lessons turned out better, and my kids did a much better job of understanding and retaining the information.
In the lesson below I have written all of my "Teach Okays" in red, so that you can more easily see how many small chunks I broke my lesson into.
In the lesson below I have written all of my "Teach Okays" in red, so that you can more easily see how many small chunks I broke my lesson into.
Question: "Our question for today is, what is a compound sentence?" Teach Okay
Answer: "A compound sentence is two sentences (hold up to fingers) put together to make one sentence (with other hand grasp two fingers and pull them together)." Teach Okay
Explain: (Have a compound sentence with the word "but" written on the board.) "Today they are going to learn how to form a compound sentence using the conjunction "but. Tell your partner what you are going to be learning today." Teach Okay Remind students that "but" is one of our Brainies. Using "Mirror Words" and "Brainies" read the sentence on the board. Teach Okay "Mirror Words. (use Brainies) The first sentence is ..." Teach Okay "Mirror Words. (use Brainies) The second sentence is ..." Teach Okay "Mirror Words. But joins the two sentences together." Teach Okay
Explain to students that you use the word "but" when you are comparing. Using the sentence that you have already read, point out to students what you are comparing. (For example, if your sentence was "Johnny can run fast, but Mark can run faster," you would be comparing how fast Johnny and Mark could run.) "We are going to read some more sentences together. It is going to be your job to decide what we are comparing. Mirror Words. (Read Sentence using Brainies.) Teach Okay
Repeat with two to three other sentences.
"This time I am going to give you the first sentence. It will be the job of you and your partner to finish the compound sentence. Don't forget your comma and your joining word. We will be using High Five Teach (In High Five Teach students take turns sharing. I have taught my students that the person sharing stands up, and the other student must repeat his words and copy his gestures. This increases student engagement. When one student is done sharing he high fives his partner and sits down. His partner then stands up and begins sharing.) Mirror Words. (Read sentence using Brainies.) Teach Okay
Repeat with three to five other sentences.
Next, play the "but" complexor game. Directions for this game can be found in "The Writing Game". This is a free download that is available at www.wholebrainteaching.com. All you have to do to receive the downloads is register on the site. Once you do they will be available to you on the right side of the screen. Click on downloads. Scroll through until you find "The Writing Game".
Please note the number of "Teach Okays" in the explain portion of the lesson. Depending on how many sentences you choose to do with your students, you could be doing anywhere between eleven and fifteen "Teach Okays".
Test: It is in this portion of the lesson that we check students' understanding. "It is time for QT." (This stands for question time. The kids will respond "Cutie". They then put their heads down and lay their hand flat on their desks.) Ask students the following question: "Is this sentence correct?" Have ready a list of sentences to read to the students, all using the word "but". Make sure that some of the sentences are using "but" correctly, and some are using "but incorrectly. Students listen to the sentence and respond with either a thumbs up or thumbs down. This tells you as the classroom teacher who is getting it and who isn't. This allows you to either go back and reteach or move on. It also lets you know which of your students you might want to pull for further instruction at a different time.
Critical Thinking: Guide students orally through the first three rungs of the Genius Ladder (For more information on the Genius Ladder, see my Blog Post on this topic.) using the following sentences:
Blah: my brother's favorite food is pizza.
Spicy: My brother's favorite food is hot, cheesy pizza.
Extender: My brother's favorite food is hot, cheesy pizza, but my favorite food is cold ice cream.
Genius Paragraph: Students create their own paragraph using the structure of the extender sentence as their topic sentence, but changing the foods and people as they want to. They must give detail adders and a concluder (concluding sentence). This is done orally at first, but then the students are asked to put their paragraph into writing.
It is important to note that at every level of the Genius Ladder students are sharing using Teach Okay and Tag Team. While the students are writing their paragraphs, I walk around the room with my red and green pens to do red/green writing. If you are unfamiliar with what red/green writing is, please see my blog post on this topic.
I hope that you have found this lesson helpful and that it inspires you to take a closer look at your writing program.
Answer: "A compound sentence is two sentences (hold up to fingers) put together to make one sentence (with other hand grasp two fingers and pull them together)." Teach Okay
Explain: (Have a compound sentence with the word "but" written on the board.) "Today they are going to learn how to form a compound sentence using the conjunction "but. Tell your partner what you are going to be learning today." Teach Okay Remind students that "but" is one of our Brainies. Using "Mirror Words" and "Brainies" read the sentence on the board. Teach Okay "Mirror Words. (use Brainies) The first sentence is ..." Teach Okay "Mirror Words. (use Brainies) The second sentence is ..." Teach Okay "Mirror Words. But joins the two sentences together." Teach Okay
Explain to students that you use the word "but" when you are comparing. Using the sentence that you have already read, point out to students what you are comparing. (For example, if your sentence was "Johnny can run fast, but Mark can run faster," you would be comparing how fast Johnny and Mark could run.) "We are going to read some more sentences together. It is going to be your job to decide what we are comparing. Mirror Words. (Read Sentence using Brainies.) Teach Okay
Repeat with two to three other sentences.
"This time I am going to give you the first sentence. It will be the job of you and your partner to finish the compound sentence. Don't forget your comma and your joining word. We will be using High Five Teach (In High Five Teach students take turns sharing. I have taught my students that the person sharing stands up, and the other student must repeat his words and copy his gestures. This increases student engagement. When one student is done sharing he high fives his partner and sits down. His partner then stands up and begins sharing.) Mirror Words. (Read sentence using Brainies.) Teach Okay
Repeat with three to five other sentences.
Next, play the "but" complexor game. Directions for this game can be found in "The Writing Game". This is a free download that is available at www.wholebrainteaching.com. All you have to do to receive the downloads is register on the site. Once you do they will be available to you on the right side of the screen. Click on downloads. Scroll through until you find "The Writing Game".
Please note the number of "Teach Okays" in the explain portion of the lesson. Depending on how many sentences you choose to do with your students, you could be doing anywhere between eleven and fifteen "Teach Okays".
Test: It is in this portion of the lesson that we check students' understanding. "It is time for QT." (This stands for question time. The kids will respond "Cutie". They then put their heads down and lay their hand flat on their desks.) Ask students the following question: "Is this sentence correct?" Have ready a list of sentences to read to the students, all using the word "but". Make sure that some of the sentences are using "but" correctly, and some are using "but incorrectly. Students listen to the sentence and respond with either a thumbs up or thumbs down. This tells you as the classroom teacher who is getting it and who isn't. This allows you to either go back and reteach or move on. It also lets you know which of your students you might want to pull for further instruction at a different time.
Critical Thinking: Guide students orally through the first three rungs of the Genius Ladder (For more information on the Genius Ladder, see my Blog Post on this topic.) using the following sentences:
Blah: my brother's favorite food is pizza.
Spicy: My brother's favorite food is hot, cheesy pizza.
Extender: My brother's favorite food is hot, cheesy pizza, but my favorite food is cold ice cream.
Genius Paragraph: Students create their own paragraph using the structure of the extender sentence as their topic sentence, but changing the foods and people as they want to. They must give detail adders and a concluder (concluding sentence). This is done orally at first, but then the students are asked to put their paragraph into writing.
It is important to note that at every level of the Genius Ladder students are sharing using Teach Okay and Tag Team. While the students are writing their paragraphs, I walk around the room with my red and green pens to do red/green writing. If you are unfamiliar with what red/green writing is, please see my blog post on this topic.
I hope that you have found this lesson helpful and that it inspires you to take a closer look at your writing program.
Friday, November 21, 2014
The Five Step Lesson Plan
A fundamental part of Whole Brain Teaching is the five step lesson plan. I love the five step lesson plan. Mastering this lesson plan design will move you one step closer to teacher heaven. What makes it so great is that it is easy to follow and can be used with any lesson or program that you currently use. All you need to do is tweak the lesson to make it fit into the five step lesson plan. Soon it becomes habit, and you are automatically writing up every lesson that you teach in this format.
Step One: Ask a question. This sets the stage for learning, because it causes your students to start thinking about what they will be learning about. Recently, I was teaching a math lesson on more than/less than; so I asked my students the question, "What is more than less than?" This is done using Teach Okay. Below is an explanation of Teach Okay.
Teach Okay is all about student engagement. Its structure is designed to create 100% participation in a lesson. The way it works is simple. After sharing a brief chunk of information with the class (in this case the question), the teacher claps her hands twice and says, "Teach." The students clap their hands twice and say, "Okay." They then make a full body turn to their partner and teach the information that the teacher just shared. At the beginning of the lesson, they simply restate the question.
When the teacher wants the classes attention, she calls them back with a class yes. The class is expected to immediately turn, look at the teacher, and fold their hands. The teacher then continues with the next part of the lesson.
Step Two: Answer the Question. Give the students the answer to the question that you asked. This often means providing them with a definition. In my more than/less than lesson I defined more than less than using gestures and Mirror Words. Sometimes I will use Silent Mirrors or Magic Mirrors Below is an explanation of Mirrors.
Mirrors is another student engagement strategy. Students are expected to copy the words and/or gestures of the person teaching. The teacher begins by stating the type of Mirror that he/she will be using and using the gesture for that Mirror type. The students then repeat the name of the mirror and copy the gesture for it. Mirrors stay on until the teacher says, "Mirrors off." Here are the three types of mirrors:
Mirror Words: Students are to repeat your words and copy your gestures.
Silent Mirrors: Students only copy your gestures.
Magic Mirrors: You put your hands behind your back, and students create gestures for what you are saying.
Teach Okay generally follows Mirrors. This allows students the opportunity to teach each other, with the use of gestures, the information that you just taught them.
Step Three: Expand. This is where the actual teaching of content occurs. It involves the use of Mirrors and Teach Okay. It involves chunking the information being taught into small segments and having the students teach that information to each other. The rule of thumb is that a teacher should never talk more than 30- 45 seconds at a time. Any longer and we go into lecture mode. This is when we start losing our students. It takes a little bit of practice at first, but after a while it becomes habit. My more than/less than lesson came from a program that our grade level is using called Engage New York. I simply took the material that I needed to cover in the concept development portion of the lesson and put it in the Mirror/Teach Okay format. Here is one example of this. The lesson called for students to draw on a form that was provided three similar numbers using base ten blocks. They then were to created their own problems using these three numbers and the more than/less than symbols. Here is what I did. After the students drew the base ten blocks for each number I revealed the following sentence frame: _________is more than/less than __________ because __________________. Then, using Teach Okay and Tag Team Switch (In Tag Team Switch students take turns sharing. Teachers have a set procedure on who always go first. In my class my students are labeled Peanut Butters and Jellies, and Peanut Butters always go first. After taking their turns, the Peanut Butters will high five the Jellies and Jellies will take their turn. This continues until the teacher calls the students back together using Class Yes.) the students create their own problems using the sentence frame that I provided. Using the word because (WBT calls this a because clapper) is very important, because it asks students to give a reason (proof) for their answer. As I walked around and listened to the students I heard lots of amazing proof. They would say things like, "549 is more than 149, because it has more hundreds." A couple of my higher students actually stated how many more hundreds: "It has four more hundreds." When I called the students back together I wanted them to hear each other's thinking. I especially wanted the whole class to hear what my high students had to say. So I asked those students to share. They do not, however, share in the normal way. They stand and using Class Yes and Mirror Words, they actually teach the class. The class will repeat their words and gestures, just like they do mine when I am teaching. This is the beauty of Whole Brain Teaching. When one student shares, the whole class is still engaged!
Step Four: Test. This is where you check for understanding. There are two ways to do this. This first is with Yes/No Way. The teacher makes a statement. For example, 335 is greater than 353. The students respond with "Yes!" (and a fist pump) or "No Way!" (hands on forehead and then quickly pulled off) The other way to test is called QT (question time). When you say QT to your students, they should say, "Cutie." They then put their heads down and lay their hands flat beside their hands. The teacher then makes the same type of statements that were used in Yes/No Way, but this time students keep their heads down and respond with either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. The teacher uses a clip board to note which students need additional help. Based on the results, you can choose to either move on to step four or go back to step three and reteach. Please note that Yes/No Way is optional, but QT should be used in all of your lessons.
Step Five: Critical Thinking. This step asks students to engage in higher order thinking skills. It is a critical component and should not be left out. Often it will involve writing. In my more than/less than lesson, this was the question that I asked my students: Noah's number was 353. Manuel had 35 tens and five ones. Who had more? How do you know? Students had to write out their answer and show their proof.
It is important to note that you do not have to do all five components in one day. Depending on the subject, the time, and the material to be covered; I will often do steps one through three the first day. The next day I will spend some more time on step three, and then go on to steps four and five.
I have found this format to be extremely successful. The students are engaged throughout the entire lesson; this means few, if any, behavior problems, the students are excited about learning; they retain more information; and they have not asked me once this year, "How do I _____________." They got it through the lesson format, because they were engaged! If you have not yet tried the five step lesson format, I would highly encourage you to do so. I can promise you that you won't be sorry.
Step One: Ask a question. This sets the stage for learning, because it causes your students to start thinking about what they will be learning about. Recently, I was teaching a math lesson on more than/less than; so I asked my students the question, "What is more than less than?" This is done using Teach Okay. Below is an explanation of Teach Okay.
Teach Okay is all about student engagement. Its structure is designed to create 100% participation in a lesson. The way it works is simple. After sharing a brief chunk of information with the class (in this case the question), the teacher claps her hands twice and says, "Teach." The students clap their hands twice and say, "Okay." They then make a full body turn to their partner and teach the information that the teacher just shared. At the beginning of the lesson, they simply restate the question.
When the teacher wants the classes attention, she calls them back with a class yes. The class is expected to immediately turn, look at the teacher, and fold their hands. The teacher then continues with the next part of the lesson.
Step Two: Answer the Question. Give the students the answer to the question that you asked. This often means providing them with a definition. In my more than/less than lesson I defined more than less than using gestures and Mirror Words. Sometimes I will use Silent Mirrors or Magic Mirrors Below is an explanation of Mirrors.
Mirrors is another student engagement strategy. Students are expected to copy the words and/or gestures of the person teaching. The teacher begins by stating the type of Mirror that he/she will be using and using the gesture for that Mirror type. The students then repeat the name of the mirror and copy the gesture for it. Mirrors stay on until the teacher says, "Mirrors off." Here are the three types of mirrors:
Mirror Words: Students are to repeat your words and copy your gestures.
Silent Mirrors: Students only copy your gestures.
Magic Mirrors: You put your hands behind your back, and students create gestures for what you are saying.
Teach Okay generally follows Mirrors. This allows students the opportunity to teach each other, with the use of gestures, the information that you just taught them.
Step Three: Expand. This is where the actual teaching of content occurs. It involves the use of Mirrors and Teach Okay. It involves chunking the information being taught into small segments and having the students teach that information to each other. The rule of thumb is that a teacher should never talk more than 30- 45 seconds at a time. Any longer and we go into lecture mode. This is when we start losing our students. It takes a little bit of practice at first, but after a while it becomes habit. My more than/less than lesson came from a program that our grade level is using called Engage New York. I simply took the material that I needed to cover in the concept development portion of the lesson and put it in the Mirror/Teach Okay format. Here is one example of this. The lesson called for students to draw on a form that was provided three similar numbers using base ten blocks. They then were to created their own problems using these three numbers and the more than/less than symbols. Here is what I did. After the students drew the base ten blocks for each number I revealed the following sentence frame: _________is more than/less than __________ because __________________. Then, using Teach Okay and Tag Team Switch (In Tag Team Switch students take turns sharing. Teachers have a set procedure on who always go first. In my class my students are labeled Peanut Butters and Jellies, and Peanut Butters always go first. After taking their turns, the Peanut Butters will high five the Jellies and Jellies will take their turn. This continues until the teacher calls the students back together using Class Yes.) the students create their own problems using the sentence frame that I provided. Using the word because (WBT calls this a because clapper) is very important, because it asks students to give a reason (proof) for their answer. As I walked around and listened to the students I heard lots of amazing proof. They would say things like, "549 is more than 149, because it has more hundreds." A couple of my higher students actually stated how many more hundreds: "It has four more hundreds." When I called the students back together I wanted them to hear each other's thinking. I especially wanted the whole class to hear what my high students had to say. So I asked those students to share. They do not, however, share in the normal way. They stand and using Class Yes and Mirror Words, they actually teach the class. The class will repeat their words and gestures, just like they do mine when I am teaching. This is the beauty of Whole Brain Teaching. When one student shares, the whole class is still engaged!
Step Four: Test. This is where you check for understanding. There are two ways to do this. This first is with Yes/No Way. The teacher makes a statement. For example, 335 is greater than 353. The students respond with "Yes!" (and a fist pump) or "No Way!" (hands on forehead and then quickly pulled off) The other way to test is called QT (question time). When you say QT to your students, they should say, "Cutie." They then put their heads down and lay their hands flat beside their hands. The teacher then makes the same type of statements that were used in Yes/No Way, but this time students keep their heads down and respond with either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. The teacher uses a clip board to note which students need additional help. Based on the results, you can choose to either move on to step four or go back to step three and reteach. Please note that Yes/No Way is optional, but QT should be used in all of your lessons.
Step Five: Critical Thinking. This step asks students to engage in higher order thinking skills. It is a critical component and should not be left out. Often it will involve writing. In my more than/less than lesson, this was the question that I asked my students: Noah's number was 353. Manuel had 35 tens and five ones. Who had more? How do you know? Students had to write out their answer and show their proof.
It is important to note that you do not have to do all five components in one day. Depending on the subject, the time, and the material to be covered; I will often do steps one through three the first day. The next day I will spend some more time on step three, and then go on to steps four and five.
I have found this format to be extremely successful. The students are engaged throughout the entire lesson; this means few, if any, behavior problems, the students are excited about learning; they retain more information; and they have not asked me once this year, "How do I _____________." They got it through the lesson format, because they were engaged! If you have not yet tried the five step lesson format, I would highly encourage you to do so. I can promise you that you won't be sorry.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Blends
For years I have introduced blends to my students by having them make chocolate milk. This year we are still making chocolate milk, but we are doing it as part of the WBT five step lesson plan. Below is the lesson that I created for introducing my students to blends. I also created a language arts Power Pic to go with the lesson. I have attached it at the end of the lesson for you to download.
1. Question
T: What is a blend? Ask your partner what a blend is. (Students ask their partners.)
2. Answer
T: Mirror Words. (Pretend to hold an imaginary cup in one hand and with the other hand make a stirring motion over the cup.) A blend is a combination of two or three letters whose sounds blend together. (Students repeat the definition and the gesture.) Clap, clap Teach.
S: Clap, clap Okay. (Students make a full body turn and teach their partners what a blend
is.)
T: Class class class.
S: Yes yes yes.
3. Explain: T: Mirror Words.
S: Mirror Words.
T: (Use gestures to accompany your words.) The word blend means to
mix two or more things together. Clap, clap Teach.
S: Clap, clap Okay. (Students teach their partners using gestures that the word blend means to mix two or more things together.)
T: Classity, class class.
S: Yessity, yes yes.
T: (Use gestures to accompany your words.) When we cook we often blend
foods together. Tell your partner that today we are going to blend chocolate and milk
together to make chocolate milk. (Students tell their partners.)
"tl" is a blend. (Repeat with both true and false
blends.)
5. Critical Thinking: Pass out a list of words containing words with "l" blends.
T: It is now time for everyone to take out their sockless hand puppets. (Sockless hand puppets
are one of the WBT's Brain Toys. For more information on the Brain Toys, go to the WBT
website and under free downloads you will find "Whole Brain Teaching Seminar 3: State
Standards and Critical Thinking". On page 33 their is a description of all of the Brain Toys.)
You are going to take turns reading the words on your list, using your sockless hand puppets. Peanut butters will go first. Peanut Butters, you will use your sockless hand
puppet to read the words on your list. Jellies, your job is to follow along with your hand
puppet. Remember, Peanut Butters, if you are stuck on a blend, you can always say, "Help me!" When you are done do "Tag Team Switch" (Partners high five each other and switch roles.) Clap, clap Teach.
S: Clap clap Okay. (Students take turns reading words with their sockless hand puppets,
using tag team switch.
Ask students to write silly sentences containing blends from their lists.
1. Question
T: What is a blend? Ask your partner what a blend is. (Students ask their partners.)
2. Answer
T: Mirror Words. (Pretend to hold an imaginary cup in one hand and with the other hand make a stirring motion over the cup.) A blend is a combination of two or three letters whose sounds blend together. (Students repeat the definition and the gesture.) Clap, clap Teach.
S: Clap, clap Okay. (Students make a full body turn and teach their partners what a blend
is.)
T: Class class class.
S: Yes yes yes.
3. Explain: T: Mirror Words.
S: Mirror Words.
T: (Use gestures to accompany your words.) The word blend means to
mix two or more things together. Clap, clap Teach.
S: Clap, clap Okay. (Students teach their partners using gestures that the word blend means to mix two or more things together.)
T: Classity, class class.
S: Yessity, yes yes.
T: (Use gestures to accompany your words.) When we cook we often blend
foods together. Tell your partner that today we are going to blend chocolate and milk
together to make chocolate milk. (Students tell their partners.)
Pass out spoons and cups with milk and chocolate already squirted into the milk, but not yet stirred. Guide the students through blending the chocolate and the milk together by stirring it with their spoons. Students may drink the chocolate milk now or at the end of the lesson.
T: Did you know that just like we can blend chocolate and milk together to make chocolate
milk, we can also blend letters together. Tell your neighbor how amazing it is that we
can also blend letters together. (Students tell their neighbors.) There is a secret to
blending letters. Ask your partner if he knows the secret. (Students ask their partners.) Mirror Words.
S: Mirror Words.
T: (Use gestures to accompany your words.) You can't just blend together any letters that
you want.
S: You can't just blend together any letters that you want.
T: Blends come in families.
S: Blends come in families.
T: Today we are going to be reading blends in the "l" family.
S: Today we are going to be reading blends in the "l" family.
Place a magnetic letter "b" and a magnetic letter "l" on the board. Model how to blend the two letters together. Repeat with the magnetic letters "cl" and "fl". Pass out a blend strip to each student containing the blends in the "l" family.
T: You are going to take turns reading the blends on your blend strip. Peanut butters will go
first. (I call my partners Peanut Butter and Jelly. Peanut Butter always sits closest to the
door and Jelly sits closest to my Brainy board.) Peanut Butters, you will read the blends
on your blend strip as many times as you can until I call "Uh Oh Switch". (This is the
signal for the partners to switch roles.) Jellies, your job is to follow along. Remember,
Peanut Butters, if you are stuck on a blend, you can always say, "Help me!" Clap, clap
Teach.
S: Clap, clap Okay. (Peanut Butters read blends on strips while Jellies follow along and help
if needed. After a couple of minutes the teacher calls "Uh Oh Switch" and the partners
trade roles.)
T: Oh my classy.
S: Oh my yessy.
4. Test: T: It is time for "Yes, No Way". (The teacher will make a statement, and the students will
respond with the word yes, and a fist pump, or the words no way, touching fingertips of
both hands to forehead and moving hands outward away from forehead.)
Teacher Statements for students to respond to:
"gl" says ____ (T. may pronounce correctly or
incorrectly. Repeat with other blends.
"wl" is a blend. (Repeat with both true and false
blends.)
T: It is now time for QT. (This stands for question time. Students will place their heads on
their desks with their eyes covered. The teacher will make a statement and if the students
agree, they will give a thumbs up. If they disagree, a thumbs down. If less than 90% of
your students answer correctly during QT, go back and give more examples and then
repeat the QT time.)
S: Cutie
T: Heads down, eyes covered, and ready for the first statement.
Teacher Statements for students to respond to:
To blend means to mix two or more things together.
The gesture for blend is making a stirring motion
over a cup.
You can blend together any letters that you want to.
"pl" says ____ (T. may pronounce correctly or
incorrectly. Repeat with other blends."tl" is a blend. (Repeat with both true and false
blends.)
5. Critical Thinking: Pass out a list of words containing words with "l" blends.
T: It is now time for everyone to take out their sockless hand puppets. (Sockless hand puppets
are one of the WBT's Brain Toys. For more information on the Brain Toys, go to the WBT
website and under free downloads you will find "Whole Brain Teaching Seminar 3: State
Standards and Critical Thinking". On page 33 their is a description of all of the Brain Toys.)
You are going to take turns reading the words on your list, using your sockless hand puppets. Peanut butters will go first. Peanut Butters, you will use your sockless hand
puppet to read the words on your list. Jellies, your job is to follow along with your hand
puppet. Remember, Peanut Butters, if you are stuck on a blend, you can always say, "Help me!" When you are done do "Tag Team Switch" (Partners high five each other and switch roles.) Clap, clap Teach.
S: Clap clap Okay. (Students take turns reading words with their sockless hand puppets,
using tag team switch.
Ask students to write silly sentences containing blends from their lists.
Clink on the link below to access the language arts Power Pic which accompanies this lesson.
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